Merja Myllylahti, Senior Lecturer, Co-Director Research Centre for Journalism, Media & Democracy, Auckland University of Technology, Greg Treadwell, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Auckland University of Technology
The news media is doing its best to keep everyone up to speed with the pace of Donald Trump’s radical changes to the world order.
But in Aotearoa New Zealand, where avoiding news is more common than in other countries, many of us are blocking our ears to it all.
In 2025, “Trump fatigue” is now one of the key reasons 73% of New Zealanders say they actively avoid the news to some extent. For context, in Finland (where trust in news is highest), avoidance sits at only 21%.
For our 2025 Trust in News report, we asked New Zealanders why they were avoiding the news and analysed 749 responses. A couple of quotes give a sense of what we found:
“Trump, Trump, Trump and no real investigative news.” – Female, European/Pakeha, aged 55-64, party vote Labour in 2023.
“I actively avoid any news of Donald Trump. If I hear any extreme right-wing views on the news […] I will turn it off. There is no place for that.” – Female, European/Pakeha, aged 35-44, party vote National in 2023.
This fatigue appears to cross age, gender and even political boundaries. Incessant news about the unpredictable United States president had similar effects on a middle-aged Pakeha woman who voted National, an elderly Maori woman who voted Labour, and a middle-aged Pakeha who identified as “another gender” and voted Te Pati Maori.
Many said Trump-related reporting encouraged them to disengage from news entirely, or at least selectively avoid US politics.
Other reasons for avoiding the news were familiar to us from earlier research: the overwhelming negativity, perceived political bias from journalists, sensationalism and the repetitive nature of the news cycle.
The trust puzzle
To measure general trust in news, we asked respondents to what extent they feel they can “trust most news most of the time”. The numbers agreeing with that statement have plummeted in New Zealand faster than in comparable countries, from 53% in 2020 to 33% in 2024.
The slide has slowed, however, with general trust levels falling just one percentage point to 32% in 2025.
We also asked respondents how much they agreed with this statement: “I think I can trust most of the news I consume most of the time.” Those who agreed stayed steady at 45%.
And trust in all the New Zealand news brands we asked about had improved. Overall, trust in news appears to be stabilising, albeit at low levels.
That may be better news for a functioning democracy, but our latest report also shows the number of New Zealanders “interested” or “very interested” in the news has dropped, from 72% in 2024 to 69% in 2025.
At the same time, New Zealand has among the highest overall levels of interest in the news (92% at least “somewhat interested”) when compared internationally.
This is something of a paradox, given the high numbers of news avoiders, with one-third (34%) of those surveyed saying they are “worn out by the amount of news these days”.
Similarly, sizeable majorities say they are “highly interested” in international news (70%) and political news (60%). Yet many feel overwhelmed by the number of stories dealing with Trump, Gaza and Ukraine.
One male respondent, 55-64 years old, said: “I try to Trumptox as much as is possible. He’s hard to escape currently, so I find myself [going] near news generally less and less to avoid the creep.”
Politics and the news
We also wanted to better understand the links between trust in news and politics, so this year we asked for respondents’ political leanings.
Going by 2023 party vote, approximately 64% of those on the right and 54% on the centre-right believe you can’t trust the news. Those who trust the news most tend to be centre-left (46%) and left (40%).
Those who voted ACT or NZ First in 2023 were more likely to avoid the news often. Those who distrust publicly-owned broadcasters RNZ and TVNZ tended to be on the right of the political spectrum, while those who distrust Newstalk ZB tended to be on the left.
Social media as a news source
The latest Reuters Institute survey of 47 countries found the use of Facebook for news had declined four percentage points in a year, with 26% of respondents now using it as a source.
In New Zealand, the trend is the opposite. Facebook continues to be the main social media news source, rising from 53% in 2024 to 58% in our 2025 survey.
But YouTube is growing fastest as a news platform in New Zealand: 43% of people in 2025 use the video-sharing platform as a news source, rising from 33% in 2024.
Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are now among the seven most-used news sources in Aotearoa New Zealand. In order, according to our survey, these are Stuff, TVNZ, the New Zealand Herald, Facebook, YouTube, RNZ and Instagram.
AI in the newsroom
New Zealand newsrooms have rapidly adopted artificial intelligence (AI) tools in news gathering and production. One recent report suggested most story selection and placement on a major local news site is managed by AI.
It remains to be seen how far into news production this trend will continue. But when we asked our survey respondents if they were comfortable with news mostly produced by AI with some human oversight, approximately 60% said no. Only 8% were comfortable with news mainly produced by AI.
Conversely, when we asked about news produced mainly by human journalists with assistance from AI, 26% were comfortable and 35% felt uncomfortable. At the moment, then, New Zealanders seem to be generally wary of news produced or assisted by AI.
Change is the only constant in New Zealand’s turbulent news media sector. As new complexities like AI emerge, the trust puzzle will become more complex too. Next year’s survey will give us a better sense of where these trends and attitudes are heading.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
